Hello Folks,
This is my answer to a question that I ask of the horse folks on Yahoo Answers. You might find it interesting and the answers on Yahoo are a good read as well! Smokie

Equiknowlogy 101…  The history of natural horsemanship

In the beginning it was Xenophon around 1 AD, a philosopher and horseman that advocated methods of training that did not break the spirit of the horse. His methods are documented in his scrolls, The Art of Horsemanship and are still available today in modern book form. It’s a pretty good read too!

  Willis J. Powell wrote a book, Tachyhippodamia; on The New Secret of Taming Horses to which John Solomon Rarey’s work, Taming of Wild Horses, was appended for publication. John Solomon Rarey was one of the nineteenth century horse whisperers, an important figure in the rehabilitation of abused and vicious horses during the 1850’s.  This book was issued before Powell died in 1848, but no publishing date is stated in the book itself. A later reprint was in 1872, in Philadelphia, by the W.R. Charter publishing house. Powell mentions the Irish “horse whisperer,” Daniel Sullivan in the preface to his own book and says that Sullivan may have possessed the same method.  Later in that same book he recounts how he heard of a man who had lived a century earlier and who had a secret method of taming horses. He says that he then resolved to discover the method for himself. Since he earlier mentioned that Sullivan had lived a hundred years before him it seems likely that he thought he had rediscovered Sullivan’s method. (The author believes Sullivan used some form round pen work and perhaps a type of “hooking on” as part of his method of training.)

Powell’s method…

  Powell says that the way became clear before him when he first realized that horses only offer resistance to humans because of fear. In order to tame a horse one must first quell their fears. To communicate calm and safety to the horse, nothing is more powerful than soothing touch. Once the horse is feeling safe it can become accustomed to things that might otherwise cause it alarm.

  Powell outlines steps by which an untamed horse may be approached without arousing alarm, how it may next be touched on larger and larger portions of its body. The same procedure of desensitization is to be followed in regard to all things in the horse-human environment that might cause unneeded fear. Finally, any fear of a saddle is handled in the same way.

  There was a man from Groveport, Ohio called John Solomon Rarey, who tamed his first horse at the age of twelve. Word of his gift spread and in 1858 he was summoned to Windsor Castle in England to calm a horse of Queen Victoria. The queen and her entourage watched astonished as Rarey put his hands on the animal and laid it down on the ground before them. Then he lay down beside it and rested his head on its hooves. The queen chuckled with delight and gave Rarey a hundred dollars. He was a modest, quiet man, but now he was famous and the press wanted more. The call went out to find the most ferocious horse in all England.

It was duly found.

  Rarey became a rich man after he demonstrated his method for Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. He traveled the world teaching the Rarey method, to France, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Norway, Egypt, Turkey, and the Arab countries. In one demonstration he took four hours taming a wild zebra to be ridden like the most docile horse. Newspaper articles were written about him and poems were composed extolling his virtues. In dictionaries of the time the verb “rarefy” appeared, meaning “to win by love, to mollify with oil of kindness, to reclaim a badly broken horse, to tame a horse by kindness.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said of Rarey that he “turned a new leaf in civilization.” His method was adopted as the official training procedure of the U. S. Army from 1862 until the advent of the Jeep. The English magazine Punch suggested that the Rarey method be practiced on obnoxious politicians, and Harper’s Weekly recommended it as a cure for wayward husbands

Rareys method:

THE HORSE is so constituted by nature that he will not offer resistance to any demand made of him which he fully comprehends. He has no consciousness of his strength beyond his own experience, and can be handled by man without force, after a little study of his habits and disposition. Being deficient in reasoning powers, he has no knowledge of right or wrong, of free will and independent government, and knows not of any imposition practiced upon him, however unreasonable it may be. Consequently, he cannot easily decide what he should or should not do. But being naturally of willing and gentle disposition, it remains for man to instruct him in a manner suited to his nature.

  The horse is a timid animal; but easily becomes familiar with objects and sounds that are at first disagreeable or frightful. We must therefore accustom him to such as he will be apt to meet with in his daily service. To do this effectually, he should be allowed to examine closely and leisurely such objects as would inspire terror, and to smell them and touch them. A log or stump by the road-side may be, in the imagination of the horse, some great beast about to pounce upon him; but after you take him up to it, and let him stand by it a little while, and touch it with his nose, and go through his process of examination, he will not care anything more about it. And the same principle and process will have the same effect with any other object, however frightful in appearance, in which there is no harm.

  I thus establish three principles on which my system of taming the horse is founded, viz.:

First. That any horse may be taught to do anything that a horse can do if taught in a systematic and proper manner.

Second. That a horse is not conscious of his own strength until he has resisted and conquered a man, and even in cases where he has temporarily triumphed he may yet be subdued ; - that by taking advantage of man’s reasoning powers a horse can be handled in such a manner that he shall not find out his strength.

 With this introduction to first principles, I will endeavor to teach you how to put them into practice, and whatever instructions may follow, you can rely on as having been proven practical by my own experiments. Knowing from experience just what obstacles I have met with in handling bad horses, I shall try and anticipate them for you, and assist you in surmounting them, by commencing with the first steps to be taken with the colt, and accompanying you through the whole task of breaking.

I have endeavored to render this little work as useful as possible, on three accounts. Firstly, on account of the profits arising from the sale of a useful work; secondly, for the credit one gets as the author of something good; and lastly, on account of the satisfaction every generous mind must feel in becoming useful to his fellow creatures.  (And excerpt from the preface of Powells book)

  Mr. Rarey’s system of horse-taming will infallibly supersede all others for both civil and military purposes, and his name will take rank among the great social reformers of the nineteenth century.
( Statement from an article in Harpers Weekly 1858)

  It could be said by reading this excerpt, and the notes on Rarey, that Powell’s first interest was in the money he could make from this book of his, and believing it to be the bible of “Horse Whispering” at the time. Secondly, to be recognized and get the credit for “his” secrets now revealed… Oh yes, and here is my gift to you sos I can really feel good about taking your money and becoming your idol! As for Rarey, one could picture him as the first “All knowing clinician traveling the country and getting rich spreading the gospel as the inventor of what we now call “Natural Horsemanship”. Of course I could be completely wrong in my ideas of what they were trying to say too!

  But, as an Equiknowlogist you will be studying all methods and teachings from every source, so as to become more rounded and knowledgeable within yourself, and pass this knowledge on to others. Not to get caught up in the idol worship of a particular method or teacher. Throughout equine history, and still today there have been masters and magicians, showman and horseman. And what you as an Equiknowlogy student can take away from this is perhaps we all can learn from each other when it comes to horses… And when looking back at these tidbits of history ask yourself this question…

  What’s the difference today in the methods of natural horsemanship that wasn’t mentioned by these folks 100 plus years ago?

Answer:  ADVERTISING!!

  As part of your ongoing studies, I would encourage you to do some follow-up research on these two fellows… They make for some very interesting reading and all jesting aside, they were very gifted horseman in their day and their methods are every bit as relevant today as they were in 1848! You will note as you read more of this drivel of mine that some of their teachings will be mentioned elsewhere in this text..

This completes your history lesson for today you budding students of Equiknology!